|
That Christ Alone May Have First Place In All Things!
by General Paul Rader
5 May 1994
Keynote -- National Forum, Chicago, IL
Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1-20
The Message
[Selected Verses]
"I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as
part of God's master plan. Together with my friend
Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of
Christ who live in Colossae. May everything good from
God our Father be yours!
"Our prayers for you are always spilling over into
thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and
Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on
your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you
continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of
purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they
are to your future hope in heaven, kept taut by hope.
The Message is as true among you
today
as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or
weaken over time. It's the same all over the world.
The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as
it has in you. . . .
Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we
haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise
minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a
thorough understanding of the ways in which God works . . . .
As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how
to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength
to stick it out over the long haul -- not the grim strength of
gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives . . . .
thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in
everything bright and beautiful he has for us.
"God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons.
He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much . .
. .We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen.
We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in
everything created . . . . everything got started in him and
finds its purpose in him . . . .
"He was supreme in the beginning and -- leading the
resurrection parade -- he is supreme in the end. From
beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything,
everyone. . . . Not only that, but all the broken and
dislocated pieces of the universe--people and things, animals
and atoms--get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant
harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured
down from the Cross . . . . We preach Christ. . . .
Christ! No more, no less."
"That Christ alone may have the first place in all things!"
VISION 2000 -- Where are we going?
1. Is this the final March to Armageddon?
Much to suggest that it might be -- Armageddon in our streets
– our strife torn cities, in brokenness and anger of our
homes, in the spawning of generations of abused abusers,
violated violators, addicted addictors with the moral
sensibilities of Beavis and Buthead. Wm. Bennett in his
Index of Leading Cultural Indicators characterizes our
culture as bereft of moral direction, a value vacuous
culture.
A few months ago, Norman Lear, hardly a friend of traditional
values, in a speech to the National Press Club, declared: "At
no time in my life has our culture been so estranged from
spiritual values . . . Our problems lie beyond the reach of
politics." Cal Thomas, the columnist who noted this,
goes on to quote Chuck Colson: "Crime is a mirror not just of
a community's families but also of its moral state. A
society cannot long survive if the demands of human dignity
are not written on our hearts" [LA Times
14 Dec 93].
"Today,"
Thomas comments further, "tragically, our culture, steeped in
the deviant and the base, seems to create sick souls, who
kidnap and kill children in California and Missouri and mow
down innocent commuters in New York."
Families are coming unglued. America now boasts the
worst divorce rate in the world. Is anyone surprised?
How timely our emphasis on the family this year!
There is a deepening sense of helplessness on the part of
parents to control the power of the media over our children in
shaping their moral consciousness.
We have forgotten how to blush as a nation. We have only
begun to experience the capacity of our culture to debase
itself to the point of self-destruction. Consider this
from last week's TIME:
"On the Downward Spiral, the bracing [sic] new
album by Nine Inch Nails, the mood starts off grim and
deteriorates fast. The record opens with a volley of
gunshot-like reports that mutate into the techno thrash of
Mr. Self Destruct, on which composer-singer Trent Reznor
screams, 'I am the voice inside your head -- and I control
you.'
"On Heresy, . . . Reznor sings, 'God is dead and no one
cares/If there is a hell I will see you there.'
Subsequent cuts evoke paranoia, murder and finally suicide.
The lyrics on the title cut include the lines 'He couldn't
believe how easy it was/ He put the gun into his face/ Bang!/
So much blood for such a tiny hole.
"'The act of trying to rid yourself of these demons, to
prepare yourself for the worst, is a positive thing,'" Reznor
opines. Comments TIME columnist, Guy Garcia: "If
only Kurt Cobain, who purveyed a similarly despairing view of
the world, had looked at things that way."
Is it any wonder that serious observers are mourning a 'loss
of soul' in America?
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, warns: "in
the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more
likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one
whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate . . . . When a
population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is
redefined as a perpetual round of entertainment, when serious
public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in
short, a people become an audience and their public business a
vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk;
culture-death is a clear possibility" [quoted in Chandler,
Racing Toward 2000, p. 306].
Is it the final March to Armageddon or does our future as
Christian believers called to be a Salvation Army yet
nurture a present purpose for which God has uniquely
positioned us in these difficult times? Paul's heavenly
hope did not deter his commitment to the long haul and his
prayer for glory strength to stay the course and to be ready
for "everything bright and beautiful he has for us!"
The fact is, there was never a more exhilarating time to be a
Salvationist!
We were never more needed! We were never better
positioned! We were never better equipped! We were
never better housed! We were never better resourced!
2. Where are we going?
Where are we tending? I do not want to seem to be
preempting the function of this forum. We are here to
listen. By its very nature a forum must be fully open to
explore new possibilities. But here are some [and
only some ] directions in which it seems to me we want to
move, are moving, and, you may agree, must move!
Forward!
Not all will agree! But can we really believe that this
is a time for retrenchment or retreat into bunkers of
self-preservation. Can anything less than a growing Army
meet the challenge of our time?! – an Army robust and
responsive to the challenge of these times. This calls for a
renewed focus on our spiritual ministries, whether in corps,
institution, or other programs, as the base for our social
outreach in ministry. Nowhere is this better modeled than in
our Adult Rehabilitation programs
Into new and burgeoning communities
yet unreached -- including suburbia, where appropriate
Toward greater diversity
-- in corps and communities -- more color, for America is
losing its pale and pink complexion. African American,
Native American, Asian American, Hispanic American -- not to
mention Russian!
Toward a more serious commitment to the equalization
of status, role and opportunity for women
Toward a renewal of our ministry to the inner city
-- reclaiming the streets -- sometimes with an 'in your face'
brashness!! Enlisting the African American
community.
Toward an ever more timely, yet timeless, response to human
need
-- as our social services, both institutional and
programmatic, as well as expressing the life of the Body and
the soul of our soldiery, seek to respond with competence and
compassion to changing human needs and resources.
Toward a significant change in our funding structures
-- in which federated funding may play somewhat less of a role
and program endowments and government funding -- and, please
God, to save our own souls, a serious commitment to
discipleship level stewardship on the part of Salvationists,
will tend to play a much greater role.
Toward a recognition of the need for a much greater degree of
ownership by lay Salvationists
-- and all it implies.
Toward an openness to the discovery and utilization of new,
innovative and less capital intensive models
for Army presence and ministry in communities that may target
those generational or other groups unreached by our more
conventional corps community centers
Towards a truly balanced and soundly integrated approach
to mission that recognizes that: "There is no spiritual issue
without a social dimension and no social issue without a
spiritual dimension. Hence, The Salvation Army
steadfastly refuses to recognize any separation between the
two, and neither dimension is excluded from any ministry" [Vision
Statement].
Towards corps that are intentional centers of spiritual
nurture, holiness and healing.
Towards a growing commitment to what God is doing, world-wide.
We cannot afford to abdicate our role. Our missionary
contribution is mediocre in terms of numbers. Most of
our money is coming from the community -- with certain glowing
exceptions. We have only begun to understand our role.
3. What will we need to get there?
As we go, we must maintain:
Our Identity
-- durable and dynamic organism. It is not frail and
hemophiliac. It is not allergic to new ideas; it will
not perish at the least contact with other organisms or bleed
to death if pricked!
Our Integrity
-- Chronicle of Philanthropy -- December UWA phone
survey -- 1,000 respondents: Army 1st with 12%, United Ways
10% and RC 3%! -- We were first in gifts in '92 as well!
Difference between reputation and character: "Reputation is
what people think you are. Character is what God knows you
are!" Integrity must be the public face of genuine heart
holiness!
Intensity
-- missional focus -- this is the greatest defense of our
integrity in mission. Clearer understanding of our
mission and the vision it has inspired and a firmer grasp of,
and commitment to, the essential ethos of the Army:
Universality
-- Inclusiveness -- Whosoever will!
Dignity
of human persons
Possibility
-- redemption, renewal, recovery, holy living
Certainty
-- saving, sanctifying grace, and calling to witness and
service.
Immediacy
-- grace mediated not through material elements or priestly
ministrants but by the Spirit to the believing heart.
Joy, Freedom, Reality and Intention to worship -- Mercy Seat
is the focus!
Availability
[uniform!] and Access ['User-friendliness!' in terms of I Cor.
9 and our commitment to reach the un-churched and un-saved and
to afford them easy access and ready understanding!] We
must not lose track of why we donned these uniforms, adopted
our style of worship, organized ourselves in a quasi-military
structure, and commissioned our bands, timbrels and songster
brigades, in the first place! In fact, the Army Mother
-- and the Founder, would insist that the standard is not
availability or even access, but aggression.
'Compel them to come in that my house may be filled!'
Community/Camaraderie
-- the community is cause-oriented -- a missional community!
We are to be, as Elton Trueblood insisted, a "Company of the
Committed." We must not lose that. It may not be
'user friendly' to the Boomer generation [although they love
to volunteer and to care, if the commitment is manageable and
not too intrusive or long-term]. We used to handle that
by putting the nominals with the seekers in the crowd and the
committed on the platform. The point being, we have
always had to hold the two together. What was never
intended is that we should be a closed community of the
thoroughly initiated who are committed only to our own
self-preservation, muttering to ourselves in a code language
baffling to the average citizen and off-putting to the serious
seeker. Some are concerned about the influence of the
Masonic order on the Army. I am far more concerned that
we not become a kind of 'secret society' ourselves in our
corps life, -- more concerned about preserving our
idiosyncrasies than being faithful to our essential calling --
privatistic, self-absorbed and effectively neutered! The
area in which that can most easily happen is our corps
fellowships. Meanwhile, our
Monday
through
Saturday
corps-based social services may be publicly acclaimed and
well-funded, and force us into the broader community. But if
they are divorced from the spiritual fellowship of the corps,
they may be devoid of the spiritual motivation and direction
-- and connection with the Body that can give them their most
unique quality and life-changing potential. And let us
acknowledge that that is a two way street!
The Founders' passion was to make Jesus Lord of it all.
"That Christ alone may have the first place in all things" --
in our purposes, our priorities, our planning and our
programs. That erases all false dichotomies. [We
are going to be pressured more than ever to compromise our
Christian identity and ideals and the Lordship of Christ over
our programs!] That brings us back to our text -- and to
the purposes and perspectives and parameters that must guide
us in this forum. If we are to achieve the purposes of
this Forum -- and ultimately realize God's intention for us in
mission as we move toward the Twenty First Century:
4. We need to commit ourselves at the outset to:
Exalt the Lordship of Christ over us
-- as central, sovereign, supreme -- 'towering above us' in
his supremacy, but coming among us -- 'he moved into the
neighborhood!' -- going to the Cross in His humility to fix
the brokenness of our world, identifying fully with us in
order to fit everything together in vibrant harmonies!
That is why our interactions here must be in the context of
worship, gratitude and submission.
Sensitize ourselves to think God's thoughts after Him
-- our "spirits attuned to his will"
Be open to the surprises of grace
-- serendipities and synergisms. Harry Read in Words
of Life declares: "We must lift our expectations to
match His!" There is an open way before us -- we
have had done with "dead-end alleys and dark dungeons."
Recognize we do have our work cut out for us
-- work -- creative work, thoughtful work, strategic work,
sacrificial work. The more we learn of how God works and
has worked in the Lord Jesus, the better we understand how to
get on with our tasks, empowered by His presence within and
held steady by His purpose for us -- the lines of purpose in
our lives 'tightly tied to our . . . hope in heaven, kept taut
by hope."
Claim the strength promised us to go the distance
-- "the glory-strength God gives . . . . thanking the
Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything
bright and beautiful he has for us."
Renew our confidence in the power of the Gospel given us
-- as strong as ever. Still the power of God unto
salvation. It hasn't lost its relevance or its radiance,
its pertinence or its power! And it is working --
all around the world -- bearing fruit, gaining strength, as
the Church grows and the Army advances.
Conclusion:
One last word to this Forum. It comes from my father, Lt.
Colonel Lyell Rader, O.F. Shortly before he was promoted
to Glory he wrote to us: 'Keep your priorities straight. Power
your projects with passionate prayer. Forget who gets the
credit as long as King Jesus gets the glory!” Do this and we
will be ready for the twenty first century and beyond!
|
